Alex Murphy
RoboCop (or OCP Crime Prevention Unit 001), formerly Detroit Police Officer Alex J. Murphy, is a fictional cyborg Detroit policeman and protagonist from the feature film series of the same name.1 The character begins as a human being who is killed in the line of duty by a vicious crime gang. Subsequently, Murphy is transformed into the cyborg entity by the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products. Since his 1987 film debut, the RoboCop character and franchise have been exercised through numerous entertainment media including multiple television series, comic books, video games, and action figures. RoboCop also made an appearance on World Championship Wrestling's 1990 pay-per-view event Capital Combat, rescuing wrestler Sting from the Four Horsemen by ripping the door off a cage Sting was locked in. Model Cop Police Officer Alex Murphy was serving with the Detroit Police Department when its funding and administration was taken over by the private corporation Omni Consumer Products. Murphy was a devout Irish Catholic and a mild-mannered family man, living with his wife, Ellen (Nancy in the television series), and his son, Jimmy. Murphy started mimicking his son's television hero, T.J. Lazer, by twirling his gun whenever he took down a criminal. Murphy’s psychological profile stated that he was top of his class at the police academy and possessed a fierce sense of duty. This dedication explained why Murphy exhibited none of the negative attitudes and statements shared by his fellow officers when he was transferred to the Metro West Precinct, the most violent area of Old Detroit. The police dissatisfaction was a result of OCP’s (deliberate) mismanagement, and penny-pinching, which lead to the deaths of many police officers in the precinct. The veteran Murphy was partnered with Officer Anne Lewis, a veteran herself of Old Detroit. During a pursuit and subsequent raid against a crime lord named Clarence Boddicker in an abandoned steel mill, Murphy was captured and beaten by Boddicker’s gang. While surrounded by the gang, Boddicker asked Murphy for his opinion of him, to which Murphy defiantly and honestly told him, “Buddy, I think you’re slime.” While Lewis was incapacitated, Boddicker destroyed Murphy's right hand with a shotgun blast. He then let his gang take turns firing their shotguns, shearing off Murphy's right arm and blasting holes in every part of his body. Amazingly, Murphy was still alive on his knees afterwards (perhaps due to the protective body armor protecting his upper body). Boddicker then walked up and executed him with a gunshot to the head. Murphy was transported to the hospital's emergency room, where the doctors tried in vain to keep him alive. After he was pronounced dead, the body was seized by OCP, citing the release forms Murphy signed when he joined the police force. The technicians of the RoboCop Program, led by executive Bob Morton, used what was left of Murphy's face and portions of his cerebrum and cerebellum and applied them to a cybernetic body, in effect, resurrecting Alex Murphy as RoboCop. Alex Murphy's police file (from the first RoboCop film) reads as follows: *OD5839484E09 *Murphy, Alex J. *548 Primerose Ln, Detroit, MI *Grade: 1 00 33 *Service: 7 Merit: *Miranda Award *GD Conduct *BRVRY In the television series, taking place two to three years after the original film, Murphy's mother and father were introduced. His father, Russell Murphy, was a devout police officer himself for many years until his retirement. He is responsible for instilling Murphy with his trademark sense of duty and dedication to law enforcement, even after his transformation into a cyborg. Throughout the series, Murphy finds himself teamed up with his father on a few cases that often saw them utilizing the elder Murphy's expertise in dealing with reappearing criminals he'd chased back before his retirement. Although his father was stern, it was clear Murphy's parents loved and cherished him even after his 'demise.' However at the end of the episode The Human Factor, Russell Murphy reveals that he knows it's his son under the RoboCop enhancements. Ellen(known as Nancy in the series for apparent copyright reasons) and Jimmy Murphy were recurring characters as well, often finding themselves crossing paths with Murphy by falling in inadvertently or intentionally with the criminal element to which Murphy interfered and protected them from harm. Despite his series partner Madigan's concerns to tell his family who he is, Murphy replied firmly, "No," as he felt doing so would hurt them even more. He commented that "they need a husband... and a father. I cannot be that. But I can protect them." Metro West Precinct "We work for a living down here, Murphy. Get your armour and suit up." :- Sergeant Reed inspiring his new meat with a little pep-talk. The Detroit Metropolitan Police Department's funding and administration was taken over by the giant private corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP). OCP was, at the time, building and trialling cybernetic and fully robotic battle machines for use both in urban environments and in war. After the failure of their first production model, ED-209, to impress the Old Man due to an unmitigated disaster in the boardroom, Bob Morton and his team at the Security Concepts division of OCP stepped up to the challenge. Bob had, very cleverly, restructured the police force and placed prime candidates with high aptitude and experience into high crime areas where death in the line of duty is highly probable. Murphy was part of this restructuring programme and found himself transferred to the Metro West Precinct, one of the most violent areas of Old Detroit. The same day of Murphy's arrival in the Precinct, three police officers are killed in the same region, by an infamous felon, and the other officers are debating strike action in response to OCPs initiatives in free-enterprise marketing and efficiency and the subsqeuent mismanagement of the police force, which lead to the deaths of many police officers in the precinct. Pretty fancy moves Murphy Murphy is partnered with Officer Anne Lewis, a hardened veteran of Old Detroit. As the two are getting to know one another, they get their first call: a robbery in progress; the perpetrators escaping the scene in a van and heading hard down Industrial Way. After an intense, running firefight, ending when someone "drops in on them", the two officers catch up to the van at the old steel mill. They split up, and things quickly go from bad to worse. After ambushing two gang members caught unawares, Murphy is forced to shoot one of them, then tries to arrest the second one, telling him in no uncertain terms: :"Drop it. Dead or alive, you're coming with me" However, unbeknowst to Murphy, Lewis was punched off a high ledge earlier on and incapacitated. Alone, Murphy becomes more frantic, but the suspense is broken when two more gang members burst into the room, both armed with shotguns. Murphy is disarmed, surrounded, and made to face the gang's kingpin, none other than Clarence Boddicker, cop killer, murderer and unoffical crime boss of Old Detroit. You probably don't think I'm a very nice guy... "Buddy, I think you're slime." ::- Even staring death in the face, Murphy does not compromise his values. Clarence spends no time in beating information out of Murphy concerning the whereabouts of his partner, but Joe, having just entered the room, rashly assures the rest of the gang that Lewis is history, before bringing his shotgun to bear on Murphy with the rest of the gang. Clarence then begins to torture Murphy for fun, shooting off his right hand, then leaving him to the tender mercy of his boys. First Leon shoots the remainder of his right arm off, then the gang open fire in unison, peppering his body from head to foot, dropping him to his knees in terrible anguish. Before they can finish him off, they run dry of ammo. The gang look on in astonishment as Murphy struggles, still alive. Emil signals this fact to Clarence, who saunters over, raises his pistol and fires a final shot into Murphy's head. Robocop Total Body Prothesis :"He signed the release forms when he joined the force, he's legally dead... we can do pretty much what we want to him." :: - Donald Johnson advising Bob Morton on the finer details of their legal standing. The restructuring of the police force by Security Concepts and the subsequent high death rates amongst officers provided raw material for OCP's special projects. After the failure of ED-209, Murphy's death was precisely what Bob Morton had been waiting for. After abortive and ultimately unsuccessful attempts to save Murphy's life in the emergency room, he was pronounced dead, and Security Concepts swung into action, harvesting what was left of Murphy's face and portions of his cerebrum and cerebellum and applied them to a cybernetic body, in effect, resurrecting Alex Murphy as RoboCop (OCP Crime Prevention Unit 001). This unit would be afforded the fastest reflexes made possible by modern technology, a memory assisted by an on-board computer, and programmed with a lifetime experience in on-the-street law enforcement. Prime directives RoboCop is programmed to follow four prime directives: #"Serve the public trust" #"Protect the innocent" #"Uphold the law" #(Classified) The fourth directive, which he was programmed to be unaware of unless it became relevant, rendered him physically incapable of placing any senior OCP employee under arrest: "any attempt to arrest a senior OCP employee results in shutdown". Senior Vice President Richard "Dick" Jones stated that Directive 4 was his contribution to RoboCop's psychological profile. Jones informed RoboCop that he was an OCP product and not an ordinary police officer. In the first movie The Old Man, after being enlightened about the Fourth Directive by RoboCop, fires Jones from OCP, which nullifies the directive. After thanking the president, RoboCop promptly shoots Jones, who then falls out the window to his death. In RoboCop 3, Directive Four is rewritten as "Never oppose an OCP officer". Directive four has been erased twice, in each of the sequels. RoboCop 2 sees the deletion of all of the directives—after he was rebuilt with so many sub-directives that he was practically incapable of taking action, forcing RoboCop to subject himself to a potentially lethal electric shock to clear his database. During RoboCop 3, Directive Four, which was not classified but instead read "Never oppose an OCP officer," was solely eliminated, so that RoboCop could avenge Anne Lewis's murder by OCP. By the time of RoboCop: Prime Directives, Directive Four, in regard to OCP, was not present at all, but a saboteur instituted a fourth directive to "terminate John T. Cable." In RoboCop: The Series, Directive Four was also not present. At the end of Prime Directives, all his directives were erased, but RoboCop stated to his son that he would do "What I do: Serve the public trust, protect the innocent, and uphold the law," noting that he would keep his directives by his own will, not through the imposition of programming. Bob Morton designed Murphy's programming to single-handedly bring down Detroit's high crime rate substantially in order to start construction on Delta City (in the series, he succeeded in this goal as Delta City is built by the time three years pass). As such, Murphy was allowed to utilize what some would consider with average police officers excessive force (beating and fatally wounding perps who did not surrender to his initial standard warning to stand down) dictated by the on-board computer and lifetime law enforcement built into him. Also, as OCP owns and runs Detroit Police, (taking into the fact the highly dangerous criminals running roughshod on the streets and overwhelming cops) they can adjust the law as they please, thus excusing Murphy's perceived excessive force as perfectly legal. In RoboCop 2, there were two occasions where Murphy assaulted two individuals connected with the drug Nuke and its creator, Cain (although note that the first fired on him with a machine gun, clearing Murphy to use said force, and the second was a corrupt cop named Duffy). In the series, Murphy no longer has this pacification programming and is apparently reprogrammed to act as an average police officer abiding by traditional law (Murphy had apparently done away with most of the rampant crime seen and mentioned in the first movie, thus rendering pacification obsolete). He rarely if ever kills criminals and is instead equipped with gadgets backed by programming consisting of non-lethal alternatives to apprehend criminals, with lethal force listed on his HUD as a last option. Weapons Auto 9 RoboCop's primary weapon, the Auto 9 remains stored in a mechanical holster which deploys from Robocop's right leg. It is also modified so it will not fire unless Robocop is the one using it. Though unnamed in the films, the script referenced the Auto-9 by name and it subsequently made it into promotional materials including action figures. Some Japanese manufacturers have made replicas and it has even been recreated for use in some other movies, such as Sin City. The base weapon is not a Beretta 93R, but rather a modified 92FS. thumb|left|292px|Holster] Cobra Assault Cannon The Cobra Assault Cannon used in RoboCop could fire explosive rounds equivalent to that of a grenade launcher and is based on the sniper rifle. The version used in RoboCop 2 has a smaller build and fires smaller explosive rounds. Machine gun/rocket launcher The machine gun made its appearance in RoboCop 3 and was never referenced by name other than being called a "weapon arm" in promotional action figures, and a "gun arm" by the production team. To use it, RoboCop removes his left hand and replaces it with the weapon assembly. It contains a 9mm machine gun, a flamethrower and a small missile launcher with a projectile potent enough to destroy an armored vehicle. Mini-gun/cannon The mini-gun/cannon can be seen in Frank Miller's RoboCop comic book and was originally meant to be RoboCop's arm cannon for the final production of RoboCop 3. Flightpack/recharging station A large jetpack that allows RoboCop to fly. It also doubles as a replenishing system for when RoboCop's battery system is low on power. As seen in RoboCop 3, the jetpack allows Murphy to overcome his relatively limited mobility for tactical advantage in combat. Referred to in the film as a "flightpack" and by production as a "jetpack". Perception RoboCop has an internal zoom capability for better aim as well as tracking. RoboCop also has different vision modes but the only one that has been used in the movies was thermal vision in RoboCop and RoboCop 3. His systems use a grid which is crucial to RoboCop's targeting as well as bullet trajectory (allowing him to make ricochet shots), though apparently the targeting reticle of RoboCop is internal to him, as seen in the first movie. As seen in RoboCop 2, RoboCop's programming prevents him from targeting children, which allowed Hob to shoot RoboCop and escape the Nuke drug lab. He also has a recorder which can detect voice fluctuations and stress as well as play back audio/visual. This recording capability enables RoboCop to document any situation he encounters with perfect recall and unbiased neutrality, with his memory being deemed through legal agreement as admissible evidence in a court of law. As seen in RoboCop 2, RoboCop possesses a directional microphone with which he can track conversations from a distance. It would seem to be very sensitive, as he can hear vehicles approaching from afar despite being indoors (as he did when he was hiding out in RoboCop 3). In the television series, he is capable of lie detection by means of a polygraph. Body structure RoboCop's body, while incorporating portions of Alex Murphy's living tissue, is largely electronic and mechanical. This interior structure is protected by an armored shell composed of "titanium laminated with kevlar" making RoboCop incredibly resilient against both bombs and bullets, as well as extreme impacts such as being hit by cars and falling off skyscrapers. As demonstrated in RoboCop, the body armor can sustain thousands of armor-piercing rounds before damage begins to appear on the armor itself. It is also highly resistant to he at, as in RoboCop, he was unaffected after being caught in a gas station explosion and in RoboCop 3 when he was briefly set aflame. His visor is made of the same material and a black strip of bulletproof anti-fog glass which protects the cranium apparatus and eyes. The visor also has an undercloth of Kevlar which protects the neck and covers up any wires etc. It should also be noted that the visor conceals most of Alex Murphy's face inside it. The visor is attached with screws. When the visor is removed only the front of Murphy's face, from the top of the neck up, is exposed; the back of his head is entirely mechanical In RoboCop 2, RoboCop's right arm contained a display that alerted personnel to his health status. RoboCop's hands also contain actuators strong enough to crush every bone in a human hand (about 400 foot pounds). His right hand also contains a spike (referred to by fans as a "dataspike" and by production as the "terminal strip") which is used to retrieve or display data from any computer bank with a corresponding port. At the end of the first film, the jack is also used as a stabbing weapon against the antagonist Clarence Boddicker. RoboCop is extremely strong, able to lift the front of the average car over his head with one arm or resist the crushing effort of a car crusher, as seen in the TV series (episodes 5 and 21, respectively). He was designed to be able "to penetrate virtually any building," and breaks locks with ease. In Frank Miller's RoboCop, RoboCop stores his reserve box magazines in his right wrist; this is never shown in the film series. He is seen reloading the Auto-9 in RoboCop 2 with a magazine already in hand at the start of the scene. In the later television series, the holster area of his left thigh is used to store grenades, though on some schematic drawings the same area is used to store an emergency oxygen tank. RoboCop implies that only Murphy's head and brain was used in the construction of RoboCop, as Morton states that "total body prosthesis" was an agreed-upon parameter. It is unclear in the first two films whether or not RoboCop's human face is merely a replica of Murphy's, as it contains a scar in the location where Boddicker shot him in the head, though he himself tells Murphy's wife (in RoboCop 2) that "they made this to honor him." After touching it, she says, "it's cold." In the script of the same film, it was initially planned that Cain and crew would remove Murphy's face during their attack on him, to reveal a Terminator-esque skull underneath. In RoboCop 3, Dr. Marie Lazarus, RoboCop's chief technician, stated that Murphy's face was indeed transplanted onto the mechanical skull, and that it is not a replica. In the first film it is mentioned that RoboCop eats a "rudimentary paste that sustains his organic systems." In RoboCop: Creating a Legend, a bonus feature on the RoboCop: 20th Anniversary DVD, it is speculated that Murphy's face was removed from his corpse and implanted on the cyborg's head to give RoboCop a sense of identity. This psychological disruption RoboCop may have experienced is explained from the basis that a person whose memory has been erased would still possess the memory of being human and would suffer a psychotic breakdown if that person saw the reflection of a robotic image instead of their original image of humanity. Category:Characters Category:Cyborgs